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Hurst marvels at hat-trick maestro Kane

15 January 2018 19:46

Harry Kane's goalscoring prowess has been saluted by the striker responsible for England's finest hour.

Tottenham and England star Kane is off and running this year and his brace in Saturday's 4-0 thrashing of Everton took him past Teddy Sheringham as Spurs' all-time leading Premier League scorer, following a record-breaking 2017.

Kane passed Alan Shearer's previous best mark for the most Premier League goals in a calendar year with 39 in 36 games, while he also outscored Barcelona and Argentina superstar Lionel Messi for club and country over the 12-month period.

He it was his remarkable feat of netting eight hat-tricks in 2017 that drew the warmest praise from England great Sir Geoff Hurst.

Hurst famously claimed the matchball when the Three Lions defeated West Germany 4-2 after extra time at Wembley to win the 1966 World Cup and he recognises a master of the craft.

"Well, it's astonishing. Look at the hat-tricks," he told Omnisport. "In my career at West Ham, I think I scored about 10 or 11 hat-tricks and I was quite proud of that.

"He's scored eight in a season. His record, so far, in the last two or three years, he's been consistently a good goalscorer and he's got a good knack of scoring the goals."

Hurst also recognised the contribution of Spurs' creative stars to Kane's record haul.

"He's fortunate, and I'm not being disrespectful, he's playing for a very good footballing team, who have got two very good creators – Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli alongside him," said the 76-year-old.

"You're playing with two tremendously creative players, almost the best in the country at club level.

"Having said that, whoever you're playing with is creative, you've still got to be able to put it in the net and he's doing that fantastically well."

Hurst added: "He seems a really good character. Very level headed, down to earth, wants to improve.

"I think we're going to be seeing a long and successful career goalscoring. Many more hat-ticks over the course of his career in football. Subject, of course, to not getting hurt."

*** Sir Geoff Hurst was speaking at the London Boat Show as Sunseeker International were announced as an official FIFA Partner for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.***